


The Trolley Problem

by KinbariTeaHeathen



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Balanced Obsession AU, Danny with Star Freckles, Everyone in Amity Park loves their hero, Mission: Cheer Up Phantom is go!, Space Mode AU, Space Sparkle AU, and will protect him with their LIVES (if he would let them), kinda hurt/comfort? not really sure, this AU has too many names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 00:41:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19878757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KinbariTeaHeathen/pseuds/KinbariTeaHeathen
Summary: Despite Amity Park’s best efforts, word of Phantom’s space obsession eventually reached the GIW.





	The Trolley Problem

**Author's Note:**

> I've been holding off on writing the fic for a while, but all the content from last night kicked my writing mode into high gear, so here we go folks!

Despite Amity Park’s best efforts, word of Phantom’s space obsession eventually reached the GIW. The GIW, upon receiving this information, had the realization that this was the perfect opportunity for them to turn the town against Phantom and capture him. And so, they set up a trap.

On Monday afternoon, as soon as Phantom appeared in the park, they set their plan in motion. Phantom stiffened as they emerged from the bushes, immediately on guard.

“What are you doing here? You want me to kick your butts for the 28th time?” Phantom asked, already poised to fight. Thus, he was very confused and wary when the GIW didn’t start shooting him after his quip. Something was up.

“Rumour has it that you have a secondary obsession with space. We have simply come here to see if that’s true.” One agent said. Even at the simple mention of space, Phantom flickered, his (aptly named by the townspeople) ‘star freckles’ momentairly breaking through. But it was only a flicker, as Phantom was already way to far into ‘hero mode’ due to the GIW’s presence for him to switch over to ‘space mode’ so easily.

Everyone else in the park was now paying complete attention to the situation now that Phantom’s space obsession had been mentioned, most of them worried about what the GIW could have planned for their hero. Some people had even gotten closer, ready to argue against anything the Guys In White could say.

“And so what if I have a space obsession?” Phantom said, crossing his arms, “ It hardly seems like something you’d like to learn about anyways.”

“It may not be something we want to learn about.” The agent said as another agent brought forward an object covered by a cloth, “But it is something we can exploit.”

As he said this, the agent removed the cloth to reveal what, to the onlookers, appeared to be a normal rock. Some people relaxed in relief, thinking that nothing bad was actually going to happen, but others tensed further, sensing that the agent wasn’t done.

“This, Phantom, is a very rare space rock.” The agent really didn’t need to say that, as Phantom had already recognized it as the asteroid that had been stolen from a nearby museum three days ago. He flickered again, stronger this time, but didn’t go after the rock, knowing that this must be some kind of trap. He forced himself to focus, the freckles fading off his face as he made a conscious effort to not look at the rock and stay in hero mode.

The agents, noticing this, grinned. The plan was working perfectly. It was time for phase 2.

“Why should I care about some rare space rock you guys have?” Phantom had barely finished his sentence when the agents whipped out two guns. One pointed at the space rock.

The other at the crowd.

Upon seeing a gun pointing their way, the citizens who had been watching immediately scrambled, trying to run away, only to find that the couldn’t. Glowing walls that they knew must’ve been created by the GIW shot up around them, cutting off all their escape routes. This was planned. The GIW wanted them to be involved.

“What are you doing?!” Phantom shouted, showing a rare amount of anger, “You’re endangering innocent people!”

Yet, as he said this, his eyes briefly stared at the asteroid, which was also being held at gunpoint. The faint outline of the star freckles appeared, then vanished again.

It suddenly struck the citizens as to what the GIW’s plan was. They also all instantly mentally agreed that it was a stupid plan, as Phantom was sure to save them, and there would be no damage, other than the GIW’s wounded pride and arrest. 

At least, they hoped there would be no damage.

“Have you ever heard of the trolley problem Phantom?” The agent asked, and at his command, both guns fired.

Danny, of course, knew that he must save the people. Who would choose a rock over lives? And yet, even though he had decided this already, time still seemed to slow down. He could hear both of his obsessions screaming at him. And as he dove towards the people, his space obsession screamed all the louder. 

To the point where…. it almost hurt.

~

Later, as the GIW were loaded into a police car, Danny found himself standing over what remained of the destroyed asteroid. The people he had saved earlier stood nearby, watching him carefully. He hadn’t said a word since he saved them. Eventually, one of the braver citizens slowly approached him.

“Phantom?” They asked, cautiously, “Are you alright?”

Danny couldn’t blame them for being cautious. He had just gone against one of his obsessions after all, and Amity Park had seen beforehand what happens to some ghosts when they go against their obsessions. The usual result being violence. Lots of anger and violence.

“I’m not about to go on a violent rampage if that’s what you’re asking.” Danny said. From the corner of his eye, he could see some people’s shoulders slouch in relief, but others, including the person who had approached him, still looked concerned.

“I’m more worried about how you’re doing emotionally than that, Phantom.” The person said, “So I’ll ask again, are you okay Phantom?”

“No.” Danny answered truthfully. While his hero/protection obsession was happy, and he knew that even without it he had done the right thing, he had felt his space obsession break, just like the space rock. He finally looked up at the person who had approached him, and the other people who had followed their lead and gotten closer. He gave them a sad, clearly fake smile.

“But it’s just a space rock right? I’m sure there are many others in the world.” He said, trying to brush off how much he cared about it. Despite his attempt, which wasn’t very convincing to begin with, the people knew the destruction of the asteroid must’ve affected him greatly, as even at the mention of space, there wasn’t even the slightest flicker of the ‘star freckles’. But before they could offer him any comforting words, Danny, who couldn’t handle the eyes on him anymore, took off, flying away from the group. They watched him go.

“Poor kid.” Someone said, “He looked so sad. I hope he recovers from this soon.”

Everyone present silently agreed, hoping that upon his next appearance, Phantom would be back to normal.

But he wasn’t back to normal by his next appearance. Sure, he made some witty quips as he fought the ghost, but they were weak, and he didn’t seem to be enjoying himself as he said them at all. He didn’t stick around after the battle was over like he’d recently started doing. Someone shouted something space related at him, but despite Phantom definitely having heard them, he showed no reaction. Seeing Phantom so sad, and with no sign of his space mode, the town began to worry.

And thus began the worst week of Amity Parks life.

~

After a whole week of Phantom’s new behavior, and no sign of his space mode, the worried people of Amity Park went to the Fenton’s. The Fenton’s were the obvious choice, as they were the only local ghost hunters who have a truce with Phantom that they could go to for information. (No one knew who the Red Huntress was, and besides, the Fenton’s weren’t just ghost hunters, they were also ghost scientists.)

Maddie and Jack, like everyone else, were also worried for Phantom, but at least they had an explanation for his behavior. But of course, they couldn’t fit the whole town in the Fenton household for the explanation, and they really didn’t want to explain it more than once. And so, they did the most obvious thing to do, and held a town meeting.

“As we all know, last week, Phantom went against one of his obsessions.” Maddie explained, “Although he did do the right thing by saving the people, and he probably knows that there are many other space rocks in the world, his space obsession broke, so scientifically, he’s reacting appropriately.”

“We have recently discovered that not all ghosts become violent when they go against their obsession.” Jack said, “Some of them get overcome by overwhelming levels of sadness instead of rage. We believe that this is the case with Phantom.”

“Thankfully, it appears that having multiple obsessions has stopped Phantom from being emotionally overwhelmed.” Maddie added, “Instead of breaking down, he’s instead put all of his focus into his hero obsession to avoid the pain of his broken obsession. In doing so, he has, we’ll say, ‘locked up’ his space obsession, which is why he hasn’t reacted to any mention of space recently. We believe that, should Phantom’s space obsession react to a positive thing about space, he should go back to normal.”

“Going against his obsession has left Phantom down in the dumps!” Jack proclaimed, pulling out a whiteboard and marker, “Which is why we need to cheer him up!”

And so, Mission: Cheer Up Phantom! Began.

~

Everyone in town had their own ideas on what to do. Some people made intricate models of solar systems, others made rocket ship replicas to give to Phantom as gifts. A group of teens started wearing space themed clothing, and soon enough everyone else was too. People made banners and art that could be easily be seen from Phantom’s viewpoint in the sky. There was even a #BringBackSpaceMode going on Amity Park’s Twitter!

And yet, despite all this, it still wasn’t working. They had yet to see even a flicker of Phantom’s space mode. 

A few highschoolers had the bright idea to ask Danny Fenton for advice. After all, he did like space, almost as much as Phantom! Surely he would know some space related thing they could use to cheer up their ghostly hero!

They were very disappointed and confused, however, when he just shrugged and gave them a book on space before walking away, not saying a word. It was a little odd, but they eventually chalked it up to Fenton just being Fenton, and let it be.

So, basically, no one knew what to do. None of their ideas were working, and short of calling in NASA, there wasn’t much else they could do. 

Then, three days after Mission: Cheer Up Phantom started, after a ghost fight, a group of young kids, probably aged around 6 to 10, called Phantom’s name. Even in his saddened state, Phantom wasn’t going to ignore a bunch of kids, and so he floated down.

“Mr. Phantom! We heard you were feeling sad, so we all came together and made this to cheer you up!” One boy said, as the others pulled an object out of their toy wagon. 

“It isn’t exactly like it used to be, and we think it’s still missing some of the pieces, but it’s together!” Another kid said, and then they presented their gift to Phantom.

It was the space rock. It was messingly glued together, and definitely didn’t look anything like it did before, but it was the space rock.

For the first time in two weeks, Phantom’s face lit up, the star freckles reappearing, and shining brighter than ever before. 

“You put this back together, for me?” He said, landing fully on the ground and leaning down to hold the delicate rock. The kids nodded. He looked up at them and smiled.

“Thank you.” He pulled in the group for a hug. People who had been nearby cheered, happy that their hero was, well, happy again. 

~

News quickly got around that Phantom was back to normal. And yet, despite that, people didn’t stop with the space stuff for another whole week. They weren’t taking any chances, and they wanted to make up for the time that was missed during ‘The Weeks of Sadness’. 

No one noticed how Fenton seemed to wear concealer for all of Space Week.


End file.
